


Dirk and Sam

by NYWCgirl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 03:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5113790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To fill a prompt from Pipilj:  Peter and Neal are stranded in the wilderness escaping from the bad guys. They hurt, hungry and scared. They get help/rescued from a friendly ghost/spirit who makes sure they are ok<br/>Characters: Peter, Neal <br/>I Would Like: Some H/C, the boys are a little spooked. Would love a discussion if the ghost was a figment of their imagination <br/>I Don't Want: nothing too graphic</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dirk and Sam

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pipilj](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Pipilj).



“Can you see them?” Peter asks a bit out of breath.

“No, stop for a second.”

Both men stop running and listen.

“I guess we lost them.” Neal finally says.

“I hope so.”

Neal notices that Peter is out of breath. Which is strange in itself, considering the condition the older man has. Peter still scores good on his physicals and he runs every weekend or even during the week when he has the time.

“Are you hurt?” Neal asks.

“I guess.”

“What do you mean, you guess?”

Neal studies Peter but he can´t see anything in the moonlight. Running through the forest at nighttime turned out to be very different from the movies. The moon barely makes it possible to see individual trees.

“Where are you hurt?”

“Ribs, I must have hurt them when we jumped the van.”

OK, that makes sense, the van had picked up speed, when Neal had finally been able to get their restraints loose and to open the back door, so they could jump out.

“And you?” Peter asks Neal.

“I´m fine.”

“OK, let´s move, so we don´t get cold, the temperature is dropping and we can´t make a fire, so we should keep moving. Any idea in which direction?”

“Nope, you are the eagle scout here.”

“So we are lost.”

“Pretty much, but me need to move.”

Peter holds his arm against his ribs and they start walking in a slower pace.

 

* * *

 

Peter notices that Neal has been growing more silent with every passing hour. Well, he isn´t chatty at the moment either, he hurts all over, is cold and hungry. But Neal looks disoriented and sometimes wonders of, until Peter guides him back.

“Are you OK?”

“Hum?”

“Neal? Are you OK?”

“Yeah, sure, just thirsty and tired. And maybe a bit woozy. It happens when I skip a meal.” Neal lies easily.

Peter believes the lie. Neal is always moving, so that must cost a lot of energy, he can understand that Neal would suffer from a sugar dip.

“We can rest for a moment.” He suggests.

“Yeah, lets.”

Peter finds a fallen tree and sits against the stump, Neal drops next to him. He closes his eyes and sighs. Neal starts shivering, so Peter pulls him closer and Neal gives a small chuckle.

“What?”

“Are we getting a bit frisky?”

“No, but we need to conserve body heat.”

“Whatever you say. Can I close my eyes for a minute?” Neal has a begging sound to his voice.

“Sure, I will wake you up.”

Peter can feel Neal almost immediately fall asleep, drooping against him and it doesn´t take long for him to fall asleep as well.

He startles awake when he hears a branch snap. His eyes fly open and he keeps completely still. Neal doesn´t even stir.

He scans his surroundings and notices two little boys walking up to them. The children are wearing winter clothes and boots. The oldest boy seems about six years old and the smaller child around three. They appear to be brothers and they are holding hands. Still, even if they are dressed for the weather and conditions, it is still odd that they are alone in the forest at night.

“Hey kids. What are you doing here? Are you parents in the vicinity?”

“We saw you and thought you needed help.” The older boy says.

“You live here?”

“I guess you could say that.”

Peter can see that the smaller boy is studying Neal.

“Does he have owies?” he asks Peter.

“I don´t know. Neal?”

Peter shakes Neal gently but only a moan escapes Neal. His eyes however, remain closed. Peter´s worry increases and he starts to shake more in earnest.

“Neal? Come on, open your eyes.”

He slaps Neal gently on the cheeks and only now notices how pale Neal is.

“Wake up.”

“Can my brother try?” The older boy gently lays his hand on Peter´s shoulder and points at his brother.

Peter turns to look up at the boy who is now standing next to him. Peter gets back on his haunches to give the boy access to Neal. Now that the smaller boy is in front of him, Peter notices the boys is warm and smells of cookies.

The boy kneels next to Neal and places his hand on Neal´s cheek and suddenly Neal´s open.

“What?”

Peter is worried by the slurring quality of Neal´s reaction.

“You have big owies. Dirk, he needs to come with us.”

The older child nods and turns to Peter.

“Mister, you need to come with us to the cabin. It is warm and dry.”

“Dirk? That is your name?”

“Yes, I´m Dirk and this is my younger brother Sam.”

“Nice to meet you boys, my name is Peter, and this is Neal. Neal? We need to get up so we can find shelter.”

Neal makes an uncoordinated attempt to get up. But it isn´t until Peter helps him up that he manages; When he stands, he wavers in place. Something is off with Neal, but Peter still hasn´t found out what. It wasn´t until Peter got up that he notices how much he hurts. He has stiffened up during his sleep on the forest floor.

“How far is your cabin?”

“Not that far, let´s go, do you need help?” the oldest boy says seriously.

“No, it´s OK, we´ll manage. Lead the way.”

Neal is very disoriented and keeps asking where they are going, and Peter is walking slower and slower as his hurts start to get more pronounced. It takes them about half an hour they reach a cabin. The fire inside is burning and there is a lamp lid. The older boy opens the door and they all go inside. Peter drops Neal on one of the bunk beds and Neal can only moan in sheer exhaustion. Now in the light of the cabin, Peter can see how pale Neal truly is.

“You live here with your parents?”

The boys ignore Peter´s question and Dirk hands him a bottle of water and a box with cookies.

“Do you need a first aid kit?” Dirk asks, while climbing on a chair to retrieve it from a shelf.

Peter would normally not have let the boy go through such acrobatic acts, but he is just too tired to help him.

Dirk comes back with the first aid kit and asks his brother to tell him where Neal was hurt.

“His head hurts.” The little boy said.

Peter looks at the two strange little boys. They have taken their coats off and Peter can see that they have clean warm clothes underneath; they seem well taken care off. Now that he sits down, he feels his injuries even more and he just wants to sleep. But he decides he needs the water more, so he drinks and eats some cookies, which turn out to be delicious.

“Your mam made these? They are really good.”

The boys smile and turns back to Neal, checking his head and bandaging it. Neal has his eyes open but doesn´t seem to really register anything.

“Neal, you drink.” The smaller boy says.

Peter can see that it takes Neal a giant amount of effort to focus on the small boy.

“Hi angel.” He slurs smiling.

The boy feeds him some water and a cookie. Soon after the last bite, Neal lets his eyes slide shut again. He is shivering, so Dirk places a quilt over him and hands Peter another one when he sees that Peter is cold as well.

“Your friend will be OK.” Dirk tells Peter. He curls up against Neal and Neal soon stops shivering.

“You has owies too.” Sam says with a serious look on his face.

Peter nods.

“Yeah, I think I cracked some ribs, but nothing serious. I´m just tired.”

Sam nods.

“Sleep, you can have my stuffie.” And he shows Peter a small well loved teddybear.

“Thanks Sam, but I will just sleep a bit, if that is OK. Promise you stay in the cabin and don´t wander outside, OK?

“Cross our hearts and hope to die.” Both boys solemnly pledge.

Peter let himself down on the other cot in the cabin. Sam walks up to him and Peter invites him to come lay down next to him. Peter is a bit surprised how warm Sam is, but he soaks the warmth up and before he realizes, he is out.

 

* * *

 

Peter wakes when a cold hand touches his neck. He startles awake.

“Easy, we are here to help you guys.”

Peter blinks up to the man who now crouches down next to him.

“My name is earl, I´m a paramedic, my colleague Fred is checking out your friend. Can you tell me your name?”

“Peter, my name is Peter, and that´s Neal.”

“Nice to meet you, Peter, can you please tell me where it hurts.”

“Everywhere, but my ribs most.”

“OK, let me check that out for you.”

While he starts his examination, the paramedic tells them how lucky they are that they were able to find this cabin.

“Dirk and Sam brought us here.” Peter explains. “Where are they, do they live here?”

“There was nobody here.”

Peter opens his eyes again, when had he closed them, and scans the cabin. The plate of cookies is still on the table.

“There were two little boys in the woods last night, they escorted us here. They took care of Neal and gave us the water and cookies.”

“Seriously, there was nobody here, when we arrived here, but I will ask the police officers to look for tracks. Shouldn´t be too difficult if they were here. Well, your ribs are probably just bruised, but we will only be sure after X-rays, so we will be transporting you to the hospital.”

“How did you know we were here?”

“The silent alarm of the cabin was activated when you entered.”

The other paramedic is able to wake Neal and get some semi-coherent sentences out of Neal.

“Your friend has a nasty head wound, but you bandaged it very professional, so it looks like it doesn´t even needs stitches.”

“I didn´t do that, the boys did.” Peter looks surprised.

“How old were they?”

“I estimate, three and six, fair skin, blond with green eyes. They were wearing corduroy pants, flannel shirts and leather boots. They wore some sort of green parkas.”

“I´m sorry, but a six year old couldn´t have bandaged your friend here like he was. Someone else must have done it. Are you sure you were not just tired and don´t remember?”

“No…” but Peter doesn´t sound so certain anymore.”

“Ok, let´s pack up; I restocked the first aid box again, so we are good to go.”

Earl´s colleague Fred enters with a stretcher and they lift Neal over from the cod to the stretcher. They then carry him towards the ambulance.

When Earl comes back, Peter tells him, he can walk to the ambulance himself. So Earl helps him get up and for a moment Peter regrets his stubbornness, and grits his teeth against the pain. Earl waits a moment for Peter to collect himself, before they slowly make their way to the ambulance.

 

* * *

 

In the hospital it turns out that Neal as a moderate concussion and a deep laceration to his head, but as the medic had predicted, they didn´t need to suture it. He also had bumps and bruises and would be sore for a while.

Peter had bruised ribs and one rib had a hair line fracture in it. He had sprained some muscles in his shoulder and bruised his knee, but nothing that wouldn´t heal with rest.

It was only a small local hospital and Peter and Neal were placed in one room. Later that night when they are having dinner, Peter stops and asks Neal if he can remember the boys.

“Well, I was pretty out of it, but I can remember a small boy in the forest. He was bent over me and he whispered that we would be alright. Oh wait, I remember his brother, he was warm and he smelled of cookies.”

“Yeah, his name was Sam, and the older brother´s name was Dirk.”

At the moment, the door of their room opens and a state trooper enters their room.

“Good evening, my name is agent Johnson. You are special agent Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey?”

When both men nod, he continues. “I was informed by the paramedic to look for two little boys.”

“Yes, their names are Dirk and Sam, come to think of it, they didn´t give me their last name.”

“Well, I am sorry to inform you that both boys are passed away.”

Both Peter and Neal look in shock at the state trooper.

“Did you find them?”

“No, not exactly. Wait.” He takes something out of a folder he brought with him.

“Are these the boys?”

Peter stares at the picture.

“Yes, that is them.” He nods. There is a knot in his stomach. Did something happen because he fell asleep and they wandered off into the woods again?

“Well, agent Burke, these boys were found dead six years ago. They were kidnapped from their home and held in the cabin where they died of exposure.”

Neal pushes his food tray away from him and swallows.

“OK, thanks for informing us.” Peter says matter of factly.

“Well, if it helps, you are not the first stranded people in the woods to be rescued by the boys and probably not the last. I have never seen them myself and believe me, I looked. But they only seem to show themselves to people who truly need their help.”

“But the cabin looked nicely kept.”

“Yes, it was bought by some locals after the boys were found and is always kept in good condition. It is also stocked with supplies because all the locals know that if someone really needs help, the boys will bring them there. That is why a silent alarm was placed, whenever someone enters the cabin, we are alarmed.”

Peter is a bit take a back to the confession of the state trooper. He looks like a no nonsense guy, and yet, this man confesses he has been looking for the ghosts of two boys who died six years ago. And that the locals all know about the two boys.

“Thank you for updating us, officer.”

“You´re welcome. Have a safe trip home.” He nods and leaves the room.

Neal and Peter just stare at each other.

“So, we were saved by two small ghosts?”

“Yeah, it seems like it.”

Before they leave for the town, Peter asks the paramedics where they can find the cabin and they are given directions to it. They drive up there and enter the cabin. Like the state trooper had mentioned, the cabin is cleaned by someone and stocked again. The first aid box is replaced and fresh cookies are placed in a box on the table.

Neal sits down and from his pocket his takes some pieces of paper and starts folding. When he is done, he places two little teddybears, a crane and a turtle on top of the box with cookies.

“Thanks” he murmurs before leaving the cabin.

Peter looks around the cabin, before following Neal outside.

“Bye, Dirk and Sam.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> In origami, a crane is a symbol for happiness, good luck and peace. A turtle symbolizes longevity and protection. It unites heaven and earth as its shell represents heaven and its underside the earth.


End file.
